François Gernelle (born December 20, 1944) is a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

and entrepreneur famous for inventing the first micro-computer using a

micro-processor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

, the

Micral Micral is a series of microcomputers produced by the French company Réalisation d'Études Électroniques (R2E), beginning with the Micral N in early 1973. The Micral N was the first commercially available microprocessor-based computer. In 1986, ...

Education

In the late 1960s, Gernelle earned an engineering degree at the

Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

. In 1978, he earned a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in computer science at the

Pierre Mendès-France University Pierre Mendès-France University (UPMF, french: Université Pierre Mendès France, also known as Grenoble II) was a French university, based in Grenoble, focused on social sciences. It was named after the late French politician Pierre Mendès-Fr ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Career

Intertechnique and R2E

In 1968, he was hired by

Intertechnique Zodiac Aerospace was a French aerospace group founded in 1896 that supplied systems and equipment for aircraft. It had around 100 sites across the globe and employed nearly 35,000 people. In October 2018, it was acquired by French aerospace an ...

, a company specialized in electronic measurement for aviation. There he discovered the

Intel 8008 The Intel 8008 ("''eight-thousand-eight''" or "''eighty-oh-eight''") is an early byte-oriented microprocessor designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC), implemented and manufactured by Intel, and introduced in April 1972. It is an 8-bit C ...

microprocessor and imagined all its potential applications. As his hierarchy didn't share his views on the i8008 development capacity, he resigned in 1972 and joined

R2E R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars'', or in Irelan ...

, a company created and led by Paul Magneron. He designed the Micral N micro-computer to answer a request of INRAArticle
(dated of Dec 10 2003) about this on the INRA website. to measure agricultural hygrometry. During this project, he granted two patents. In 1973 he supported the Micral N and, with the company's growth, helped to design 20 other multi-user microcomputers for some were multi-processor one.

Bull Micral

In 1981, the Bull company acquired R2E and he then joined the new entity Bull Micral. But the company wanted him to design IBM PC compatible machines and François Gernelle didn't agree because he thought this machine was poorly designed, using an 8 bit single-tasking single-user i8088 powered by a poor operating system. In his mind, this kind of poor computer design was a dead-end at a time where really good micro-processors existed and offered capacity to design powerful multi-user and multi-tasking systems at medium and even low cost.

FORUM International

In 1983, he resigned from Bull and founded a new company named FORUM International to create professional computers powered by Prologue OS.

References

External References

* This article is based on the French Wikipedia article. *
Interview
with F. Gernelle issued in Le Choc du Moisbr>issue #18 of december 2007
. *
«La naissance du premier micro-ordinateur: le Micral N»
("Birth of the first micro-computer: the Micral N") article written by F.Gernelle where he talks about his career at R2E, Bull and the creation of FORUM International.
History of Computer Graphics
by Dan Ryan, page 336. 2011, AuthorHouse. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gernelle, Francois French engineers 1944 births Living people French computer scientists